First off, I do have to give you credit because unlike the other responses I got from the “Tommy Boy and Sully” crowd, you had the balls to do it in public, not through some gutless (and usually anonymous, and always profane and mis-spelled). I knew I would draw that kind of fire; I knew I was pointing out some uncomfortable truths about the “sacred cow” that is the New England Patriots.

Having said that…

I’ll grant you that almost every stadium on an NFL Sunday is a good place to find shirtless drunks generally behaving badly. The glaring exception is Indianapolis, where everybody got coached to be pin-drop quiet during the Peyton Manning era. However, to debunk the first of your assumptions about me, I have been to Gillette on more than one occasion. I have yet to be there without seeing at least a dozen “Tommy Boys” screaming “NIGGAH” at opposing players and “FAAAHKING NIGGAH LOVER!” at anybody who told them to shut the hell up. Let’s face it, the “Tommy Boy and Sully” crowd found a way to make even Eagles fans look classy.

Let’s stick to your “false assumptions” accusation for a moment. I have no idea where you got the idea that I am a Minnesota Vikings fan. Granted, I have stated on more than occasion that I lived in Minnesota for a while. So, while you can obviously read, comprehension is not your strong suit. If it were, you would have realized that in the first few paragraphs of the very article you are attacking, there was a mention of what awful fans the Vikings have, and what a crap franchise they are, and this reference was complete with link to my post detailing that. I’m clearly no Viking fan.

Not that it matters, but if you must know, I have been a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles since before the Vermeil/Jaworski days. Granted, Eagle fans are despicable…they booed Santa Claus and threw batteries and snowballs with lugnuts in them at Jimmy Johnson, but at least they aren’t a bunch of phony front-runners. Eagle fans know their team hasn’t won jack-squat in 50 years, and they make no pretense about it.

This leads to my favorite part of your response. You take issue with being called a front-runner, yet admit you are one. To quote:

“Pats fandom started in 85 with the improbable run to the Super Bowl with the likes of Tony Franklin kicking barefoot, Eason, Grogan, Hannah, Stanley Morgan James, Fryar and more. There are in fact a ton of people who wear Andre Tippet shirts around here as well, but you wouldn’t know that because you are making assumptions from a distance. You despise Pats fans and the Pats because they are a great franchise and have been near the top of the AFC since the mid 90s.”

In other words, you admit you are a bunch of front-runners, I just picked the wrong date…you all jumped on the band-wagon in 1985, not 2001. And even then, I bet you had a hard time finding those Andre Tippett jerseys in the Dick MacPherson years. In short, to debunk another of the “assumptions” you are accusing me of making while you are doing EXACTLY the same, I have had a belly-full of Patriot front-runners who will be gone the minute this team is back to its historic 7-9 ways, and I’m tired of hearing about what a “dynasty” the Patriots are, despite the fact that TWO other teams have won the Super Bowl twice since the last time New England did. The trouble is that you know I’m right about that, and that is what really pisses you off.

If you must know, the real reason I have a beef with the Patriots is because as an Eagle fan, I loathe the New York Giants, and thanks to New England’s chronic inability to get first-downs late and/or make big plays late in big games when they need them (most recently last Sunday night in Baltimore), they gift-wrapped two Lombardi trophies for the Eli-tard and the Giants.

Now for the “distance” thing…There’s one thing that has changed since your 1985 genesis of Patriot fan-dom. “Tommy Boy and Sully” now have Facebook pages, blogs, make podcasts, and the radio shows they call into all stream on the web. That means I can access every bit of Boston media whenever and wherever I want. You try to claim history as a reason why Patriot fans are tough…if the Minutemen and the “real” patriots had been as much front-runners an current Patriot fans are, we’d still all be drinking tea in the afternoons and calling cigarettes “fags.” The better historic analogy for you is the Salem witch trials…anybody who dares not to drink the Patriot Kool-Aid must immediately be burned at the stake, because sometimes the truth is just not what you want to hear.

Dubs, I don’t normally disagree with a lot of what you have to say but this article from top to bottom is a stretch to say the least. Every stadium has drunk tailgaters with shirts off as well as the wine and cheese crowd of luxury box owning pink hats. Every single team that is decent enough that is.

Pats fandom started in 85 with the improbable run to the Super Bowl with the likes of Tony Franklin kicking barefoot, Eason, Grogan, Hannah, Stanley Morgan James, Fryar and more. There are in fact a ton of people who wear Andre Tippet shirts around here as well, but you wouldn’t know that because you are making assumptions from a distance. You despise Pats fans and the Pats because they are a great franchise and have been near the top of the AFC since the mid 90s.

The fan base took longer to get going due to TV blackouts and a shorter history than most of the old school teams. In fact there are still a ton of Giants fans here due to the regional blackouts back in the day. The next closest sold out stadium that was televised were the NY Giants. Couple this all in with the fact that this was always Red Sox, Celtics and Bruins country first and you can see why it took longer than expected. Unlike Vikings fans, which if I remember correctly is your team, Pats fans don’t have the luxury of waiting all season for the Vikings to start up because you are so enthralled with the Twinkies, Wild and T Wolves. I mean I’m certain we would rather have expansion teams here in Boston with shitty ownership and terrible teams.

And people here aren’t tough because we watch Mark Wahlberg movies you idiot. You clearly don’t seem to know your history…Old North Church, The Freedom Trail, Battle of Bunker Hill to the more contemporary likes of Marvin Hagler training here, Marciano, Ruiz, Rosenblatt, and the greatest gangster in the history of the US in James Whitey Bulger of which a very large majority of our fathers and uncles grew up around.

Next time you wanna rip a team and their fans do it better than this. Try some research, let go of the grudge you have over spygate cause everybody was doing it and Eric Mangina has admitted that aloud. Ask more than a few fans of the Pats that you know. Go to Gillette and hear how loud the stadium is during a game. We play outdoors like real men here. We don’t hide in some dome afraid of Old Man winter. You probablt still hang your hat on names such as Fran Tarkenton and nobody will give you shit about that nor should anybody give us shit for hanging our hats on names such as Tom Brady.